City of Good Death was published by Canelo on 13 July 2015 and is available to buy here

A gripping crime thriller set in Catalonia

A killer is targeting hate figures in the Catalan city of Girona – a loan shark, a corrupt priest, four thugs who have blighted the streets of the old quarter. Each corpse is posed in a way whose meaning no one can fathom.

Elisenda Domènech, the head of the city’s newly-formed Serious Crime Unit, is determined to do all she can to stop the attacks. She believes the attacker is drawing on the city’s legends to choose his targets, but her colleagues aren’t convinced and her investigation is blocked at every turn.

Battling against the press, the public and even some of the police, she finds herself forced to question her own values. But when the attacks start to include less deserving victims, the pressure is suddenly on Elisenda to stop him.

The question is: how?

With City of Good Death Chris Lloyd launches a gripping new series sure to appeal to readers of Val McDermid and the Inspector Montalbano novels.

Don’t miss the second book in Inspector Domènech Crime ThrillerCity of Buried Ghosts, out now.

My thoughts

City of Good Death by Chris Lloyd is a mystery, with a lovely mythological undertone and a glorious sunny setting. You really get a feel for the local culture of Girona in Catalonia. It could only be improved, if a holiday was thrown in to visit the locations.

It is the start of a series, set in Girona. Look it up on the map, if you are as geographically challenged as me. We are introduced to Elisenda Domenech, head of the new Serious Crime Unit, her sidekick Alex and her small team. This pretty much sets the tone for the series, as we see her in action and learn of her sad personal history. Elisenda is a tough woman, who sticks to her guns when she knows she is right.

Girona becomes the focus of evil. A vigilante is murdering the undeserving in the city, leaving unusual calling cards and brewing up mass hysteria. A local despised loan shark is murdered, followed by a gang of thugs drugged into oblivion. Soon everyone wants to nominate who they think deserves to suffer. The internet is buzzing with gossip. Domenech and her team must decode the rich historical symbols and myths from the area, to make sense of it all. The vigilante is using the local area legends to make a point. Who will be the next to die? Can Domenech work out who is the killer?

This is an intelligent tale; a story with layers that asks you where you would position yourself and a gorgeous Spanish location. We get a place, where evil brews and the murder victims are cheered. No one cares that a vicious loan shark has been murdered. Everyone judges. He deserved to die. Morality turned on its head. Elisenda and her team have to work to keep their prejudices away from the case and fight for the victims. This is a place of change, of challenges to identity and of new identities forming in Catalonia. The old myths and legends remind us that some things never change.

Excellent! Really worth checking out, if you want something rich in another different, vibrant culture and a good bloody murder or two!